Director
Members
Dr. Tasos Anastasiades is an Assistant Professor of the Department of Arts at the European University Cyprus. In 2004, he started publishing “Plastic Comics”, the first comic book series created in Cyprus. In 2014, he published the graphic novel titled “Fascista” and became a publishing partner and contributing artist at the first Cypriot comic book anthology titled “Current“. Tasos has been involved in numerous cultural events and in 2017 he was selected by the Cyprus Embassy in Romania and the Cyprus Ministry of Education and Culture to represent his country at the 5th European Comics Festival organized by the European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC). In 2019, T-Pub comics in London published his latest graphic novel titled “The Traveller” which is a collaboration with the acclaimed writer Neil Gibson, editor and co-writer of Stan Lee’s last comic “The Lucky Man”.
Yianna Christophorou studied Visual Communication at Middlesex University and also holds a Master’s Degree in Typographic Studies from the University of the Arts London (London College of Communication). She is a board member of the Research laboratory ‘Cultural Studies and Contemporary Arts’ and also one of the founding members of the International Motion Festival. Her professional practice and academic research pivots around Book Design, Visual Identity, Typography and the relationship between design, visual communication and social change. As a practitioner Yianna Christophorou is active in both commercial and experimental graphic design. Her work has been accepted in International Art Festivals locally and abroad such as I Love Graphics Festival, Girona Film Festival and United Designs International Poster Biennial. Her most recent practice-based projects include the creation of a series of logotypes for ‘Interfaces’, an International Interdisciplinary Project co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union, the design of a literature book titled ‘Aya’ supported by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and the production of a motion graphics video for the interdisciplinary project ‘The Wonderland Project’, funded by Pharos Trust.
Demetra Englezou holds a Master’s degree in Computer Animation from the National Center of Computer Animation at Bournemouth University 2001 and a B.A in Graphic Design from the University of the West of England Bristol in 2000. She has worked in Broadcasting and Satellite Companies since 2004. She has created a large number of animated short films and Motion Graphics and participated in International film festivals, exhibitions and art projects. She is a Lecturer at the Department of Arts at the European University Cyprus. Her research interests are based on the Motion Graphics & Broadcast Design as well as 3d Computer Animation. She is the founder and chairperson of the International Motion Festival (IMF), launched in 2012 and the first of its kind in the broader Mediterranean and Middle East.
Dr. Sophia Hadjipapa-Gee is an artist and academic living in Cyprus. Sophia is Associate Professor and a board member of the Research laboratory “Cultural Studies and Contemporary Arts” at European University Cyprus. She has a BA in Painting from the National Academy of Arts of Sofia, where she also completed an MA degree, in Painting and a PhD in Art History and Theory. Besides painting she has worked on illustrations of poems, covers of books and has been involved in Public art, interventions in Public spaces, participatory projects, and video art, which have been presented in international festivals and exhibitions. Sophia Hadjipapa has been coordinating the International Painting and Sculpture Symposium in Samokov Bulgaria, since 2015 and is currently Artistic Director of the International Motion Festival. She also co-curated The International Urban Emptiness Nicosia Festival, 10-16 December 2017, Nicosia, Cyprus. She has served in various professional bodies including sitting on the committees for the Selection of Works and Artists for Biennales and serving as academic expert on the committee for composing the New National Curricula in Art, of the Cyprus Ministry of Education and Culture.
Affiliated Researchers
Sharon Kanach is an American musician who originally went to Paris as a student to study with Nadia Boulanger but her path diverted radically when she met Iannis Xenakis (1922 – 2001), with whom she collaborated closely for the last twenty years of his life, especially on his extensive writings. In 2009, Sharon Kanach became the founding director of the Xenakis Project of the Americas based at City University of New York and vice-president of the Centre Iannis Xenakis (CIX) based at the Université de Rouen. In 2015 (in France) and 2016 (in Cyprus), the CSCA (EUC), CIX (UdeR/GRHis), University of Cyprus (Architecture Dept), and the Ecole nationale supérieure d’architecture (ENSA – Normandie) partnered to host the International Symposium: “From Xenakis to The Present: The Continuum in Music and Architecture”. Between 2017-19, the EUC and the CIX once again collaborated on an ambitiousCreative Europe project in the context of the “Urban Music Boxes and Troubadours” activity, by developing UPISketch, a mobile app for drawing music.
Dr. Marina Kassianidou is Assistant Professor of Drawing and Painting at the University of Colorado Boulder, USA. She is a visual artist whose work focuses on relationships between mark and surface. Her practice combines painting, drawing, collage, installation, site-specific work, and art writing. Her theoretical interests include poststructuralist philosophy, psychoanalytic theory, and feminist theory. She completed a Ph.D. in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Arts, London, UK. She also holds an M.A. in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, UK, and a BA in Studio Art from Stanford University, USA. She has exhibited her work in the UK, USA, Australia, Cyprus, Israel, Germany, Greece, France, Italy, Spain, and Belgium. Selected awards include a Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant and fellowships at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Hambidge Center, and Ragdale Foundation. Her writings have appeared in the journals RevistArquis, The International Journal of the Image, and Journal of Contemporary Painting, among others. She has published the books How to Know: A Space (Nicosia: Thkio Ppalies, 2016), Μπαίνοντας στην εικόνα οι λέξεις (Nicosia: EI.KA, 2017), and Exercise Book (Nicosia: P. S. Artist Led Projects, 2018).
Nicolas Lambouris is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Arts & Communication at Frederick University and Director of Unit [Arts, Media & Visual Studies Center]. He holds an MA in Photography from Kent Institute of Art & Design, University of Kent (UK), a BA (cum laude) in Studio Art and a BA (cum laude) in Media Studies from Queens College, City University of New York (USA). Lambouris is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Association of Photography & Theory [IAPT], and a founding member of the Cyprus Semiotic Association (CSA). He has participated in a number of conferences dedicated to the interdisciplinary and critical exploration of photography and visual culture, and has text contributions in the scholarly journal Photographies. His work, primarily photographic and time-based media, has been exhibited locally and internationally; it is part of private and state art collections, and has been published by Yard Press and IAPT Press. His research interests focus on issues of production, assimilation and dissemination of the photographic image as a visual and cultural apparatus.
Despo Pasia is a museologist and museum educator. She holds a Diploma in Pedagogical Sciences from the Cyprus Pedagogical Academy, a Bachelor Degree in Anthropology and Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Masters in Museum Studies from the University of Leicester. She designs and implements educational programs for many historic, archaeological and art museums in Cyprus and has worked as education officer at the State Gallery of Contemporary Cypriot Art and the Cyprus Museum. She has extensive experience as research and education associate for research projects on History, Archaeology and Cultural Heritage funded by the Council of Europe, Marie-Curie Actions, museums and cultural institutions. She also co-creates exhibitions and museum interventions. She currently teaches Art in public primary schools and is a PhD candidate at UCL- Institute of Education, University of London. Her doctoral research focuses on the experience of young people’s encounters with archival photographs. Her research interests include hybrid exhibitions, photography, photographic archives and museum education.
Dr. Evis Sammoutis is Assistant Professor of Composition at Ithaca College, NY and the Artistic Director of the Pharos Arts Foundation International Contemporary Music Festival. His works have been performed in more than forty countries, awarded over thirty-five compositional awards to date (such as the Royal Philharmonic Society Award, the Irino Prize, the Andres Segovia Prize and Concours Dutilleux) and were commissioned by prestigious organizations worldwide (such as the Venice Biennale, Klangspuren Festival and ARD). His music was selected for five ISCM festivals (Korea, Hong Kong, Stuttgart, Belgium and Poland). Performers include Peter Sheppard Skærved, the Arditti Quartet, Klangforum Wien, Neue Vocalsolisten, Les Percussions de Strasbourg, Ensemble Modern and the London Symphony Orchestra, among others. He holds a PhD in Music Composition from the University of York with additional studies on full scholarships as a Fellow at IRCAM, Darmstadt, Voix Nouvelles and Tanglewood. For more information: www.evissammoutis.com
Dr. Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert is associate professor at the Department of Multimedia and Graphic Arts of the Cyprus University of Technology (CUT). She is the leader of the “Museum Lab” group at RISE (Research Center of Interactive media, Smart systems and Emerging Technologies) and the coordinator of “Visual Sociology and Museum Studies Lab” of CUT. She is also the coordinator of the Working Group “Connectivities by People” of the European Training Network “Participatory Memory Practices” (POEM). Her research interests include museum studies, visual sociology with an emphasis on photography, and new technologies in museums. Theopisti has published widely on museums and photography, is the co-author of The Political Museum (Routledge, 2016) and the editor of Museums and Visitor Photography (MuseumsEtc, 2016), Museums and Photography: Displaying Death (co-editor, Routledge, 2017), and Photography and Cyprus: Time, Place, Identity (co-editor, I.B.Tauris, 2014). She received her PhD in Museum Studies from the University of Leicester (UK) is the recipient of several scholarships and awards including a Smithsonian Fellowship in Museum Practice (USA), a Fulbright Fellowship (USA) and an Arts and Humanities Research Council Award (UK).
Dr. Tereza Markidou is an academic, a primary school teacher and art educator. She is currently a Scientific Collaborator at the School of Humanities, Social and Educational Sciences at the European University of Cyprus. Tereza holds a BA in Education Sciences (University of Cyprus), an MA in Creative and Visual Arts (University of Exeter) and a PhD in Art Education (UCL Institute of Education). Previously, she worked as a Special Scientist at the Department of Education at the University of Cyprus. Tereza is committed to enhance the social and inclusive dimensions of art education through developing theoretically grounded and quality learning experiences offered in and out of school to children and adults. Her research work was presented widely in various local and international conferences and she co-authored art education programmes for museums and NGOs in Cyprus. Moreover, she has a rich voluntary practice as an art education consultant, and she is a member of various art education associations. During 2013-2017, she served on the executive and scientific committee for the Cyprus Society of Education through the Arts (CySEA). She is also invited to offer various keynotes, university lectures and teachers’ training workshops with regards to social justice and democratic practices in art education. Moreover, she participated in many public art initiatives including bicommunal projects (Common Ground, 2015), multicultural projects (Alien Trail, 2017) and Erasmus + (KS2) programs. In 2015-2016, Tereza was awarded with the Fulbright Visiting Scholar Grand, which she conducted at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, USA. Her full CV is available at: https://euc.academia.edu/TerezaMarkidou.
Interns
Valia Matsentidou received her Bachelor in Pedagogy from University of Cyprus and she is currently attending European University Cyprus to finish her Master’s in Visual Arts in Education. She is also attending the Digital Marketing Program from University of West London via Cyprus Institute of Marketing. She has lived in Madrid and Athens, where she made an introduction to her ever since lifetime passion: Photography. Printmaking was her excuse to get deeply involved with Art and Museum Education. Lately, she seeks for new ways to engage both kids and adults to Cyprus Art Heritage through Museum Education. She understands Art as inspiration to confront the everyday life difficulties. She believes people of the community need to express themselves more in order to be happier. Thus – to her – art is the vehicle to achieve wellbeing. Her work has a strong tendency to memory and nostalgia. While everything goes digital, she intends to go analog. Polaroid photography and handwritten letters are her current means to revive the analog. Her practices include writing responses to artworks inside Museums, while she extends these practices outside to the community by combining city walks and writing workshops. Her work experience includes educational programs for adults at State Gallery of Contemporary Art (SPEL) and A. G. Leventis Gallery, as well as educational programs for kids at Nicosia Municipality Art Centre (NiMAC). She loves books so she became a co-organiser of the book festival “H Lefkosia pou diava-zei”. She is currently glad to work for the Cyprus Pavilion at the 58th Biennale Arte di Venezia.
Eleni Philippou is a travel writer, event photographer and blogger who gets a kick out of uncovering new lands and cultures. She thirsts for new, eye-opening experiences and through her work, aims to encourage fellow adventurous minds to live and travel consciously. She trots through life with a journal, a pen and a camera in her backpack, documenting life in her own quirky way. She studied Spanish and International Media Communications at the University of Nottingham and this thrill for writing and photography grew during her Erasmus year when she lived the Andalusian life to the fullest and in Panama where she discovered a love for yuca and papayas. An islander at heart with big dreams, Eleni yearns to explore the unfamiliar, the ordinary and the peculiar, as does her writing and photography. Currently, she freelances for travel publications and platforms such as Culture Trip and The Travelettes, writes for the Cyprus Mail and photographs events.